Lonely Nights
by Alyia
Summary: The wolfos come and Bakura feels himself getting soft.... so far there's violence and swearing... quite a lot, that's why it's PG13...
1. Wolfos

My first attempt at a Yu-Gi-Oh! fic without my char in it... I honestly don't know what's going to happen yet... Just wanting to write something... Anyways.... Hopefully no-one will die, that's always sad.... *continues rambling aimlessly to herself until her Bakura Muse cleared his throat.*   
Bakura *in his usual gruff voice*: Anything else to tell the readers? 

Kendra: Oh, yes, right... I use the names Ryou, Bakura and Anzu plus Tristen and Joey, though Joey is sometimes referred to as Jonouchi.... Just to make things confusing. Also, Yugi and Yami Yugi who is referred to as Yami. 

Bakura: Just draw them a chart... 

Kendra: Right --- Name I use ~ Name you might be familiar with 

**Ryou**~Bakura   
**Bakura**~Yami Bakura   
**Anzu**~Téa   
**Tristen**~Honda   
**Joey**~Jou   
**Yugi**~uh... Yuugi?   
**Yami**~Yami Yugi   
**Seto Kaiba**~Don't think he's called anything else...   
**Malik**~Don't think he's called anything else either.   
**Yami Malik**~For lack of a nice short name... right now he doesn't show up much anyways... 

And I think that's all of the characters I use... 

Bakura: Story? 

Kendra *ahem*: Right... He does seem to be reminding me of important things today doesn't he? 

Bakura *sighs and rolls his eyes muttering something along the lines of 'hopeless'* 

Kendra: Now that I've taken up a page with meaningless blather... On to the Story! 

Bakura: Thank Ra.... 

Kendra: Hush you. . . Wait! One more thing.. my thoughts/comments will be in ^s. 

Bakura *sighs* 

* * *

  
**::Lonely Nights::**   
**:Wolfos:**

****Bakura's P.O.V.****

"What are you all looking at me for?" 

"Well he's _your_ hikari," Yami told me. 

"Doesn't mean I'm supposed to watch over him twenty-four/seven..." I growled. 

"Come on guys," the Pharaoh's hikari said standing between the two of us, "this isn't helping us find Ryou any faster." 

"Pht," I scoffed, "he's probably off cowering in some corner." 

"That's not nice Bakura," Yugi told me. God, that kid's annoying... To bad I can't kill him... I swear he's high on something... Whatever it is it would be nice to know whom his supplier is... Drugs are nice! Whoops, people are saying things. Stupid people. 

"...And are you even listening?" 

"No, Fern-Head. You were so interesting I almost fell asleep." How long 'till Yami starts trying to kill me today? A death grip around my neck answers that question, he's bitchy today! 

"Yami! Stop!" Yugi pleads with his yami. Of course Yami drops me, I land cat-like on my feet. It's so much fun torturing Yami, Yugi wouldn't let his Yami kill me and he'd never go against the wishes of his precious aibou. It's sickening. 

"Aren't you worried about Ryou at all?" Joey demanded. Oh yeah, forgot he was here... In fact, the entire fan club is here. Gah, don't they ever /stop/ following Yugi? 

"Yeah! You should be worried!" Anzu exclaimed. Guess not. 

"Well he's obviously not going to be of any help," The spike-headed Tristen obviously. "Let's just go." 

"Fine," Yami said turning and walking out the door. The peanut gallery followed behind, Yugi last of all with one last look over his shoulder at me. I stood unmoving, leaning against the wall with my arms crossed over my chest. The little boy closed the door softly after him, like he was trying not to wake someone up. I laugh. Loudly. 

I hear from outside, "freak." Hah. Joey's such an idiot. 

I go to Ryou's bedroom, picking up the dagger Malik had given him for his birthday. Ryou may be a weak, pathetic idiot of a boy. But he's a good aibou. Crap. What the hell am I thinking? Ryou's just easy to dominate... /^Yeah, keep kidding yourself Bakura...^ / Pht, Ryou's not even smart enough to bring a weapon wherever the hell it is he went... 

Exiting through the back door, wouldn't want the peanut gallery thinking that I'm doing something /nice/. I shudder. Stupidity at it's worst, that group is. Including that idiot Ryou. I am curious though, about what happened to him... Usually when something attacks him he calls... Urg, thinking worried thoughts, bad for my health. That damn boy must be rubbing off on me... 

[Ryou?] I try. No answer, not that I expected one. Huh, that boy's going to get it when I find him... I growl angrily, I could be plotting Yami's death! But no... I have to find this stupid hikari. I continue to grumble like this as I stalk around the back alleyways of our neighbourhood. [Come on you stupid asshole. Just tell me where you are so I can get this over with.] 

{...Yam-} 

Yam? What the hell is that supposed to- Oh right, I suppose he was trying to say Yami... So what stopped him... Hm... Curious. [What?] I demand. Silence. [Damn hikari,] I growl at him. 

{Yami...} 

[What!] I exclaim. 

{You're a bastard...} 

Well that was certainly unexpected. [And you're a weakling,] I reply easily, [now where the hell are you so I can come save your sorry ass?] 

{I don't want you to fucking save me! You'd just hurt me more!} Ryou replies angrily. My hikari seems to be getting an attitude! Well, I'll fix that later... {I can wait for Yugi and /his/ Yami to save me.} 

[Gag. That is so pathetic. And are you implying that the Pharaoh is more capable than me to save my aibou?] Damn, what the hell is with me? I should just let the stupid bastard take care of himself if that's what he wants so badly. 

{Let's just say that you've never proved you're better than him before...} Ryou says slyly. Damn hikari. I stop talking to him and continue to prowl. I'm close. I can tell. 

"Yami? Are you sure he's back here?" 

"Sh Aibou," Yami hissed. Damn, stupid fern-heads are here, I can see them further down the street from me. Hiding in a convenient alleyway, I peek out at them. 

"Holy!" Yugi suddenly exclaimed and there was a flash of golden light as he disappeared back into the puzzle just before something slammed into the body of his Yami. Something very big. With a shred of Ryou's clothing stuck in it's teeth. 

* * *

Bakura: If you make me nice *shakes fist threateningly at Kendra.* 

Kendra *shrugs her shoulders with a smirk in the direction of the muse*: I can't help it! You're just such a _perfect_ character to make like this... 

Bakura *grumbles*: damn author's license... Ever since she got the fucking thing she's been making me so _soft_! 

Kendra *suddenly glomps Bakura*: Every time you say the _word_ you shall be glomped. 

Bakura *terrified eyes wide*: What word! 

Kendra: Figure it out yourself. *Gets off the dark spirit and brushes herself off.* Anyway... 

Yami Muse: Read and Review! 

Kendra: Hey! When did you show up? This is _Bakura_'s fic! 

Yami: Aw... Kendra! I wanna see Bakura suffer every time he says the _word_! 

Bakura: What's the fucking word! 

Kendra *glomps Bakura*: I don't remember. 

Bakura *protesting weakly*: But... 

Yami: Bakura you moron, she's kidding. It's quite a good ploy to get you pissed... 

Kendra *glomps Yami*: You know have a _word_ as well. 

Yami: But-- I-- 

Kendra: If you're in the fic, you get a word. As Yami said. Please R&R. 

Bakura: And if anyone figures out what our _words_ are, please tell us... 


	2. Questions

I forgot to say it last chapter but... 

**I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh!** and... 

[Bakura to Ryou]   
{Ryou to Bakura} 

Bakura: Save us. 

Yami: Yes, please... 

Kendra: Yami! You came on your own free will! 

Bakura: Not me... 

Kendra: This is your fic! Be happy! And say your _words_! 

Yami: No. 

Bakura: Stupid Pharaoh, we don't even know what they are.... 

Kendra *pouts* 

* * *

  
**::Lonely Nights::**   
**:Questions:**

****Bakura****

I saw red, literally. Though, it might have been Yami's blood... Anyway... Running down the street I actually jumped on the damn wolf-thing's back and jammed the dagger as hard as I could between the damn thing's shoulder blades. It shuddered and disappeared in suddenly, leaving me to fall into the position of straddling Yami, dagger poised above his chest as if I was about to stab him. Combine that with the fact that he's all bloody... It didn't make a very convincing picture when the Pharaoh's hikari appeared again. 

"Bakura!" he yelled at me. 

"I swear to Ra!" I said quickly as I got off Yami. One thing that drives me crazy is getting blamed for something I _didn't_ do. It's nice to get credit for something someone does... But one must give credit where credit is due... 

"Yeah right!" Yugi yelled looking pointedly at the bloody dagger clenched tightly in my fist and his bloody yami. "Are you all right Yami?" he asked kneeling down beside his yami. 

"Fine aibou," Yami told him, damn pharaoh, always being the tough guy. I turn away, looking for Ryou. Or Ryou's corpse. Whichever. Doesn't matter to me. 

Does. 

Shut up, stupid conscious. Least, I think that was my conscious. Fuck, now I'm hearing voices _other_ than Ryou's in my mind. I rub my forehead. _One_ voice is annoying enough... _^You're just jealous the little voices aren't talking to you!^_

"Yami?" gasped a voice in the corner of the alley. I look over at the body of my hikari and can't help but gasp. 

"Stupid hikari," I mutter as I bend down beside him. His shirt is in shreds, pants too. Bloody marks cover his body and face. His hair is soaked in his own blood and there is a small puddle under him. I pull off my own sweater and wrap it around his torso. He winces and lets out a gasp as I tighten it harshly. Stupid hikari... Getting himself chopped up... Damn wolf-thing.... 

"Is th- the-" Ryou tries to gasp out. 

[Mentally, idiot,] I tell him. I look for the ring. Then see it in the place I least expected it, clenched tightly in his right hand, the rope snapped like it had been chewed. Picking him up almost tenderly I cradle him in my arms. [This is just because you're an idiot,] I tell the dead weight in my arms. 

{The wolf?} Ryou begs. 

[Dead. I think.] 

{Very reassuring,} Ryou says sarcastically, I glare at him and he subsides. {Did Yami get him?} 

[No, _it _got _him_. _I_ got the wolfy.] I've reached the entrance to the alleyway and Yami and Yugi are both staring at me. Ryou's heavier than he seems, I shift my grip slightly and he gasps again, trying to curl into a tighter ball to escape the pain. [Stop moving idiot!] I growl tightening my grasp to keep from dropping the stupid boy. The Pharaoh opened his mouth to speak, from the smirk on his face I don't want to hear it. "Shut up Fern-Head," I tell him as I walk by. Something wet falls against my chest. Looking down I see Ryou's head leaning against my chest. The boy looks to be asleep. "Stupid aibou," I whisper continuing on towards the house, hearing Yami and Yugi following behind. 

****Ryou****

I open my eyes slowly, "Fern-Head, shut the fuck up," the first thing I hear. I snort mentally, Bakura at it again. 

"One would almost think you _liked_ him," Yami taunted. 

"Ra damn you Pharaoh. I had to save him. He makes a good vessel." 

{Yami?} I ask weakly. 

[Ryou?] he asks almost instantly, was that worry I heard? 

{What's-} 

[Never-mind Ryou,] he tells me, hardness evident in his voice again. [Rest.] 

I feel my eyebrows rise in surprise, but try to keep my surprise to myself as I take stock of my body. I feel like a mummy, wrapped in bandages from head-to-toe. Well, not quite. I have several bandage wrapped in a criss-crossing pattern across my chest, my legs are wrapped tightly as well. There is a bandage on my right cheek and one wrapped around my head. There is a slight pressure on the side of my neck, I feel it shift and I realise that someone's holding a bandage to my neck. "Leave Pharaoh." 

"Why?" Yami asks sweetly, I realise that the two spirits are in the same room as me. Not another as I first thought. 

"My- The boy need rest," Bakura corrected himself almost instantly, but I caught it, and I know that Yami did too. 

"Come on Yami," Yugi pleaded, I can almost see him tugging on Yami's arm. "Let's go..." 

Yami sighs, "I hate you tomb-robber." 

"I hate you too," Bakura says happily and the hand on my neck adjusts again. The sound of a door opening sounds, two sets of footsteps walk out, then the door closes again. I hear Bakura sigh, "How the hell did this happen to you aibou," he murmurs to himself as the pressure leaves my neck. I feel the wet bandages begin to be removed from my legs. "You bleed too easily," he tells me, though he obviously expects me not to answer. 

"Sorry," I can't help but say before falling into sleep. 

****Bakura****

"Sorry." What the hell! The kid's awake! Dammit! I thought he was sleeping! I grumble slightly to myself as I continue to change his bandages. Damn wolfos, scarring _my_ Ryou! Wait a minute. Did I just think that? _My_ Ryou? Well, why not, no one can hurt him but me. I nod decisively, yeah, that's it. 

And pigs fly. 

Stupid voice. Wish I could kill it. I look at the knife that I discarded on the table, suddenly Ryou winces under my hands. "Hikari?" I whisper. 

"Stop..." Ryou whispers. A dream, I realise as I return to tending his legs. Who knew a kid like Ryou could loose so much blood?... He's looking a bit pale... Is that good? Dammit... I hate this... 

* ^ * ^ * ^ * 

I sit, leaning against the wall beside Ryou's bed, I haven't moved in what seems like forever, my hand is still sitting on his fucking neck, holding the bandage over where the wolfos bit his neck to break the ring off. It's the only place that's still bleeding, if sluggishly. I feel my eyes sliding slowly shut... I jerk myself up. You're going soft, Bakura, I think, time was where you could sit awake for ten times this... But my eyes slide shut and I sleep. 

* ^ * ^ * ^ * 

"Yami?" 

"Hm?" I ask groggily, opening my eyes slowly. 

"You're hurting me." I blink my eyes open and see that I'm lying across Ryou's chest, my hand still pressed to the side of his neck, the other is on his stomach, my head resting just past the middle of his chest. I sit up with a start, "what were-" 

"Shut up," I snap. Ryou looks hurt, "Are- are you okay?" I ask softer. 

"Best as I can be," he whispers. "Everything hurts..." Then he seems to realise it was me who was asking me how he was feeling and he stares at me. I feel myself blushing and I stand up, turning away. Stupid hikari... "Are _you_ okay?" he asks. 

"Fine," I snap as I walk over to where I left the knife on the table, still bloody. I busy myself with cleaning it while Ryou stares at my back. "Problem?" I finally snap. 

"Why are you being so nice?" 

"I'm not being nice," I exclaim. Pht, I'm getting soft. Why won't he stop staring at me! The knife falls from my fingers with a clatter. I storm out of the room. Damn hikari.... Making me soft.... Maybe if I go kill something... 

****Ryou****

Yami stalks out of the room and my eyes follow him until he leaves, what did I say? Oh yeah, I called him the dreaded 'n' word. Nice. Hah, he just can't admit that he actually _likes_ someone. Wait a minute, why would he like _me_? I'd shake my head but it hurts too much. Well, it's nice to know that he's not going to be beating he bloody shit out of me any time soon... Though he might just because he doesn't like liking me... Ugh, this is confusing... Do _I_ like Yami? I don't know... Gah... I close my eyes, to much thinking, my head is spinning. 

****Bakura****

"Bakura!" 

I growl, would anyone miss that Yugi kid if I killed him? "Oh, Bakura, joy." I suppose the Pharaoh would mind if I killed his light... I sigh, I suppose I'll have to wait until I kill Yami 'till I kill Yugi. Wonder if Aibou would mind… Fuck! I don't need his permission for anything! I grumble to myself. 

"Bakura," Yugi says, "if you're out here then who's watching Ryou?" 

{Yami?} 

"Ugh, speak of the devil," I mutter to myself. 

"What?" Yugi asks, "I didn't hear you." 

"I said no-one." 

{That's not entirely true…} 

[What do you mean?] I ask with little patience. 

{You've got a-What are you going to do with that dagger? YAMI!}   


* * *

  
Kendra: Dun-dun-dun! I am so evil. 

Bakura: Yes. Yes you are. She still won't tell us what the _words_ are! 

Kendra *glomps Bakura* 

Yami *laughs at Bakura*: You're an idiot. 

Kendra *glomps Yami* 

Bakura *laughing*: Who's the idiot now? 

Kendra *glomps Bakura*: You guys are giving me a workout! 

Seto Muse *pops out of nowhere*: You're both idiots! 

Kendra, Bakura and Yami *look at Seto* 

Yami: Where did _you_ come from? 

Seto: I dunno. 

Kendra: I'm running out of words! 

Seto: That's why I came _now_, I could tell she was running out of _words._

Kendra *glomps Seto*: Found one! 

Yami and Bakura *laugh at Seto* 

Bakura: Now that she's given us all _words_... 

Yami: Read & Review. 

Seto: And please… Tell us what our _words _are… 

Kendra: Muahahahahaha! You shall never escape the _words_! *Continues to laugh evilly.* 


	3. Fun With Food

Kendra: No chit-chat now! Gotta start writing.... 

Bakura: Wow.. Two lines... And not a single glomp... 

Kendra: Wait... Something more to say.... Every once in a while during Ryou's P.O.V. when Yugi's Yami isn't around Ryou'll say Yami referring to Bakura, and when he talks mentally to Bakura he's _always_ Yami. 

Yami: Meh, it was worth a shot... 

Kendra *glomps Yami* 

* * *

  
**::Lonely Nights::**   
**:Fun with Food:**

****Bakura****

I turned and ran, ignoring the startled looks that Yugi and Yami gave me. "Where's the fire tomb-robber?" he called tauntingly after me. I resisted the urge to kill him and continued on. Whoever it was messing with my hikari was going to pay. Okay, so I call him my hikari, that doesn't mean anything... I can be protective of him if I want to! 

Idiot. 

Damn voice... I _will_ find a way to kill it... I reach Ryou's house, I wasn't that far away from it in the first place. [Hikari!] I call as I open the door slowly, trying not to make any noise as I travel across the living room. 

{Yami...} Ryou's voice is faint. Damn whoever hurt him, they will die a thousand times over for this! I look around for a weapon to use against my hikari's tormentor. I pick up a shovel from beside the fireplace. It's one of those black shovels that are used to shovel the ashes out of the fire. This'll work, I think to myself. {Help...} Ryou's voice is weaker. I climb the stairs quickly but quietly. No one messes with my aibou... 

Entering Ryou's room slowly I see a figure standing over his bed, the dagger that I used on the wolfos in his hand. Walking quickly behind him I bring the shovel up and bring it down _hard_ on the back of his head. The man collapsed into a small heap beside the bed. Looking down on the body I see that it's Yami Malik. Turning quickly I survey the room, looking for his hikari. {He was supposed to be watching the door...} Ryou coughs. Turning quickly back to my hikari I lean over him. 

"Are you okay?" 

Ryou looks sarcastically up at me, he has a new, deep, cut on his chest and a shallower one on his cheek. "I'm just _peachy_," he says in a fake happy voice. "What do we do with Yami Malik?" His voice is harsh and week and I look down at the dark spirit at my feet. Grabbing the dagger from his hand I turn it over in mine, considering killing him. {Please don't kill him,} Ryou asks, sensing my plans. I sigh and grab Yami Malik roughly by the hair, dragging him over to a corner tying him up with a rope from Ryou's closet. {Thank you,} Ryou says softly and I smile. 

"Sorry Yami," Malik's voice comes from the hallway, "I had to go to the bathroom. . ." I look quickly at Ryou who shrugs. "Yami?" the blonde Egyptian asks as he sticks his head in the room. "Oh... uh... Hello Bakura..." he the boy asks looking uncomfortable. "Nice to see you.... Have you seen my yami?" Bakura raised an eyebrow trying to hold back the laugh that was coming from listening to the ridiculous boy. Just at that moment the unconscious yami decided to stir and groan. Malik looked at the dark spirit face devoid of expression. I look at my hikari again, is that how _he_ would react if _I_ was the one trussed up in the corner like that? 

"Damn bastard..." Yami Malik mutters as he struggles to stand only to find himself tied up. He looks up to see his hikari standing in the doorway. "You were supposed to be guarding the doorway!" he yelled at the boy. 

"Aw, don't be so hard on him," I drawl. Yami Malik turns his glare to me. 

"You!" he spits at me. 

"Yup, it's me!" I touch the shovel's handle with a smirk. Yami Malik glares at me. "What should I do to you for hurting my hikari like this?..." I muse to myself. "Maybe I'll through you out the window or I cou-" 

"Ryou! Bakura!" I growl and roll my eyes at Yugi's voice, does that kid not leave anyone alone? 

{Not really,} Ryou says, having heard my thought. I snort as I hear the door opening. Malik looks out in the hall then back at his yami. 

"Untie me you idiot!" Yami Malik snapped at his light. Malik looked from me, to his yami, to the hall. 

"But-" 

"But noth-" then seeing me listening intently he continued to yell at his hikari mentally. 

"Don't be rude now," I chide. 

{Yami...} 

I turn to look at my hikari, [Yeah?] 

{I feel woozy...} Crap. Forgot that Ryou's already lost a lot of blood... I glare at Yami Malik as I grab a bandage from the kit beside Ryou's bed, still there from earlier when I bandaged him up the first time. "Aw," Yami Malik sneers, "the tomb-robber's got a heart... Makes me sick. Turning into the Pharaoh now?" 

I growl, "be happy you're not dead." 

"Ryou?" Yugi's voice comes from just outside the door seconds before he appears in the doorway behind Malik. "Holy..." he trails off as Malik moves away from the doorway. 

"What?" Yami comes up behind him, seeing only the bloody dagger that I still have clenched in my hand and the bleeding Ryou. "You sick tomb-robber!" he exclaims and I sigh smacking myself in the head with the hand with the bandages in it. 

"You're stupid Pharaoh," I reply, turning my back on him to work on Ryou. Suddenly something hits me from behind and I snap my arms out to brace myself on the walls to keep from falling on my hikari. Whirling around I face Yami, who had just hit me. "You _are_ stupid Pharaoh! I _didn't_ do this to my hikari! Idiot," I growl to myself. "Just look over-" I point to where Yami Malik was but see that Malik has untied him and he's in the process of shoving Yugi out of the way to get out of the room. "Damn!" I swear and try to throw the dagger at Yami Malik before he can get away... No way he can just leave after what he did to my hikari... But Pharaoh, being the idiot he is, grabs my wrist and the spirit escapes from the room. "What the hell was that for!" I yell as I hear Yami Malik running for his life. Which he was, because if Yami wasn't holding onto me I would have already had caught him and be beating the bloody shit out of him. 

"You could have hit Yugi!" the Pharaoh told me, letting go of my wrist. I run out to the hallway to try and see Yami Malik, but he's gone, the door swinging open. 

"Damn you Pharaoh," I tell the dark spirit as I walk back over to Ryou. Yami is bent over his hikari who is rubbing his back from being slammed into the door. "Stupid, stupid Pharaoh," I mutter to my hikari as I resume bandaging the two new cuts. 

"Thank you Yami," Ryou breathes as I finish. I smile slightly at the boy as he closes his eyes to sleep. I turn around to Yami and Yugi who are standing in the doorway looking at me. 

"Will you stay here now?" Yami demands. 

"Please," Yugi adds when I say nothing. 

"Fine," I growl, "not like I've got anywhere to be..." 

"Thank you," Yugi says as he walks out after his Yami who had left after I'd first said 'fine.' 

"Close the door behind you!" I holler at the two tricolour-haired young men. I hear Pharaoh laugh and I growl softly to myself as I return to Ryou's bedside. I look at my hikari. Maybe it's time to be honest to myself... I think. 

'Bout time. 

Ra damn that fucking voice! I growl, wishing I could kill the annoying voice... I rub my temples, now where was I? Oh right, being honest with myself. I look at Ryou, he's beautiful, I realise. Despite being covered in bandages and some blood he looks like an angel. Who, I stop myself thinking and shake my head. That was the must unexpected thought I've ever thought. I stand up and walk to the bathroom to wet a cloth to wash the blood off Ryou. I look at myself in the mirror, did I really think that my hikari was an angel? I sigh and splash my face with water while I'm in the bathroom. Walking back into Ryou's room I begin to wash the blood off him. 

****Ryou****

I wake slowly, my eyes travelling instinctively to the digital clock beside my bed. The room is dark and I feel a cool breeze from the window across my face, though the rest of me is warm. The digital clock's face radiates a red 2:54. I sigh and close my eyes again, trying to go back to sleep, but it's hopeless, I'm wide-awake. I hear someone sigh beside me and I start, looking beside me towards the wall. Yami's sleeping on his side against the wall, one arm protectively over my chest. I stare for a few minutes at my sleeping dark half. He doesn't look nearly so evil while he's sleeping. I've never seen him sleeping before so I've never seen how-- not innocent, I don't think Yami could ever look innocent but--peaceful. Yes, I've never seen Yami look so peaceful, so- so- so hot. No. I didn't think that. Wrong, I did. I close my eyes. How in the hell could I think that about him? For the longest time he's done nothing but torment me... 

Not today. My memory reminds me and I see him saving me from that dark wolf and again from Malik earlier today. And Yami had been the one that Malik had been looking for. I opened my eyes, thinking of Malik was scaring the shit out of me. It really was terrifying seeing Malik with the same dagger that Yami had protected me with earlier prepared to use it against me to bring him here... But then Yami had come and got the upper hand on Malik anyway... 

I sigh and try to get up, but Yami's arm tightens on my side and he holds me tight to his side. I relax into his hold, letting him keep me in the bed. But that brings my mind back to the question of why Yami's in the bed in the first place... Yami takes a deep breath and I hear him whisper "don't leave yet..." That must be from his dream, I think to myself, yeah... I try to keep my eyes awake but I feel so warm and safe that I fall asleep again. 

* ^ * ^ * ^ * 

The alarm clock blaring the next morning causes both of us to snap our eyes open, though I close mine again. "Crap, it's Monday..." I whisper almost to myself as Yami releases me and sits up quickly, seemingly shaking himself out of whatever it was that he was in the night before that made him so protective of me. He slides out of the bed and turns the alarm clock off. 

"Stay home," he suggests, he seems to be unusual careful in not looking at me. 

I look up at him, "yeah, maybe you're right..." I whisper and he walks quickly out of the room. I look out the window, there's a nest of birds sitting in the tree outside my window chirping cheerfully at me, seeming to be saying _get up! get up! get up!_ I wish I had something to hit them with. 

"Kill those goddamn birds," I hear Yami mutter from the hallway as he walks by my room from the bathroom to the stairs. Amen to that, I think but don't voice it, it's just to blissful to just lay here. I look over to where Yami had spent the night, feeling more content then I have for a long time... 

****Bakura****

"Yes, you heard what I said, Ryou's not going to school." I listen to the Pharaoh's response. "Oh come on, you can't really have expected him to be up to going to that goddamn school after yesterday... What? Yugi says he'll bring Ryou's homework over for him?" I pause and relay the information to my hikari, "Ryou says 'damn… and here I though that something _good_ would come of yesterday...' ... Yes well, fuck you too." I hang the phone up and smile. It's fun doing that to Yami... [Want breakfast?] I ask my hikari. 

{That'd be ... nice...} Ryou says. 

[Something wrong with me making breakfast?] I demand. 

{Can you cook?} 

[I'm offended by that!] I exclaim, [I'll have you know that I _can_ cook, thank you so much for having faith in me!] I shake my head, wondering what Ryou thinks. Probably that I'm on some drug... I mean really... I spend the night with him, tell him to stay home from school, then offer to make him breakfast! I laugh at myself and proceed to the kitchen. 

* ^ * ^ * ^ * 

I stand in the doorway to Ryou's room, Ryou's still in bed laughing his pretty little ass off at my expense. The first attempt at breakfast blew up. Yup, pancake batter all over the kitchen, bet you didn't know that you could blow pancakes up. Then I tried bacon and eggs, took me ten minutes to turn the damn smoke alarm off. Now, I'm standing in Ryou's doorway with his breakfast on a tray. Cereal and juice. There would have been toast but the toaster broke and I'm not trying to toast bread in the oven. 

Ryou seems to have got himself under control then he looks up at me again and bursts into laughter again, "and you said..... you could.... cook!" he works out in his laughter. 

I growl, "I _can_!" I exclaim, "today's just not my day..." 

"You have batter on your face," he tells me as his laughter dies down. 

I smile dangerously, "I know." Ryou takes a deep breath and finally stops laughing. I glare at him as I hand him the tray and have to restrain myself from dumping it on him lap. No one laughs at me. 

He smiles cutely at me, "sorry about laughing. But you do have to admit it is kinda funny..." He grins. 

I roll my eyes and smile, "I suppose... Though it won't be fun cleaning up the kitchen..." Ryou rubs his hands on his face and sighs, shaking his head. 

"I'll help after breakfast," he tells me. 

I'm halfway to the door and I look over my shoulder at him, "you know the reason people stay home from school is supposed to be to _rest_." 

"Pft," he waves his hand flippantly at me, "that's not the point! When you stay home from school you might as well _enjoy_ it!" I roll my eyes and he growls, "I'm serious!" 

I look at Ryou, "okay then," I say wickedly. 

****Yami** **_^oh my, you never expected this did you?^_

"Yami! Yami! Stop! Hey! Don't do that! Noooo!!" We hear Ryou yelling from inside his house. Yugi and I exchange glances, Ryou must be in trouble. 

"Hey you! Come back here! I'm going to get you for that!" That was Bakura's voice. 

"What's Bakura doing to Ryou?" Yugi exclaims as we run up to the front door. School just finished and Yugi is bringing Ryou his homework, as promised. I pound on the door. 

The door opens to reveal a ticked off Bakura. He's only wearing a pair of pants and his chest is heaving and covered in sweat as if he's been working hard. "Oh," he says sounding absolutely thrilled. _^Sarcasm there people.^_ "You." 

"We brought Ryou his homework, where is he?" I say narrowing my eyes at Bakura. 

"I'm right here," Ryou says coming down from upstairs, only revealing his head, there's something wrong but I can't seem to pinpoint it. "Why do you ask?" 

"We heard you yelling from outside..." Yugi says, trailing off as Ryou smiles. 

"Why don't you show them what you're going to 'get me for'?" he asked Bakura with a wicked grin. 

"Just give me Ryou's homework," Bakura said with a faint hint of a blush on his cheeks, holding out his arms. 

"Aw… But we wanna see what Ryou did to you," I say sweetly as Yugi handed Bakura the books. Bakura merely growled and tried to shut the door. I wouldn't let him and raised my eyebrows at him. 

He finally relented and turned around to show us a whipped cream covered back, "Happy?" he snapped angrily at me. 

"Very," I said, closing the door. 

****Ryou****

"I hate him," Yami tells me as he puts the books Yugi had given him on the table in the living room. 

"Yeah?" I ask, continuing to try to rub the food die off myself. "Yami, this die isn't coming off..." 

"Must mean you make good food," he tells me with a smirk. I look down at myself, my chest is red, blue and green splotched and my hair looks purple from the combination of blue and red. My face is green. 

"Yes, well, at least I don't have whipped cream down my pants," I tell him with a smirk of my own. 

Yami blushed, "That's not funny! It's very uncomfortable," he ends quieter. 

"It was certainly funny to watch you answer the door." 

Yami glares at me, "that was not funny." 

"Maybe not for you, but it certainly was for me!" I say with a shrug of my shoulders. 

Suddenly Yami grins and takes off for the stairs, "I claim bathroom first!" 

"No fair!" I yell and run after him. We both reach the bathroom at the same time but I slip on some water on the floor from the overflowing bathtub that I forgot about and slide across the floor to the tub. Yami's just standing in the doorway, one hand near the top of the frame and he looks like he's trying not to laugh. I hit the edge and fall into the square tub. A wave of water sloshes out of the tub swamping the floor. Yami leans over and turns the water off as I re-surface. 

"Now who's not being fair?" he asks with a smile and a tilt of his head. "Jumping in with your clothes on," he pretends to look hurt. 

"I didn't do it on purpose!" I protest. "I.. just kinda... uh... what are you doing?" Yami's rummaging in the closet. 

"Nothing!" he says innocently. I glare at his back and he whistles innocently. 

****Bakura****

"Nothing," I say trying to sound innocent as I whistle. Where are the damn towels.... A-ha, Ryou's not going to like _this_ plan... Suddenly I feel Ryou behind me, looking over my shoulder. "Hey!" I exclaim, "when did you get out of the tub?" 

"When you were whistling tunelessly," he says, then sees me twisting up the towel I grabbed. "Wait a minute.... Hey! Don't do that! Ow!" Ryou jumps up as I hit him in the backside with the towel. I feel my breath catch in my throat, his pants are clinging to his legs now that they're wet and it makes him look very sexy... Ryou seems to feel me pause and he turns around and pushes me off balance. 

"Hey!" I exclaim as he shoves me hard and I feel the back of my legs hit the tub and I grab his wrist as I fall over backwards into the tub dragging him in after me. I try to resurface faster than Ryou and find myself locked lip-to-lip with my hikari. I look into his wide startle eyes and feel my own match his as my body burned where my hikari was pressed against me. It feels like his mouth is pouring liquid fire into me. I pushed Ryou off me and slipped out of the tub. 

"Yami?" Ryou asked standing up. I look over my shoulder, then walk out of the room. "Yami, wait!" Ryou calls. I close my eyes and hurry my pace. {Was it that bad?} he demanded. 

I stop, hand on doorknob, [Wha?] I ask, dumbly. 

****Ryou****

I gasp in surprise as Yami pulled me into the tub. Suddenly he pushed up and I felt his warm lips on mine. My eyes snapped open and I saw Yami's eyes wide open and surprised. I thought I saw something else there but I didn't have time to figure out what it was because my body was burning. I pressed myself against my yami as I was filled with a desire to be as close to him as possible. Suddenly Yami pushed me off of him and got out of the bathtub. 

"Yami?" I asked, confused. Hadn't he liked that? He looked over his shoulder at me as I stood up. Then, he turned and walked away. "Yami, wait!" I called after him. {Was it that bad?} I demanded of my yami as he reached the door. 

[Wha?] he asks. 

{I _said_ was it that bad?} 

[Bad?] Yami demanded, turning around to look at me. [Bad?] he asked again and I wondered what I had said wrong. _^How naive...^_ Yami sight as I stepped off the stairs. [It wasn't bad, Aibou,] he said slowly taking a step towards me. 

{Then why are you running?} I asked before remembering the painful lessons that he had taught me saying that he never ran. Yami may have changed, but he couldn't have changed that much... 

[Because I'm afraid...] he said as he closed his eyes. That was news to me, I'd never known my yami to be afraid before... 

{Yami?...} 

[Afraid of my feelings. Afraid of- afraid of-] 

{Of what Yami?} 

[Of you,] he breathed 

{Me!} I exclaimed. 

[Of how I feel about you...] 

{I-I'm just as scared as you are...} I trailed off. Yami looked up at me and suddenly I was struck at how frail he was. I lurched forward suddenly and wrapped my arms around his waist, burying my head in his chest. "Don't do that." 

"Do what?" he asked as his arms closed around my shoulders and his head went down to the top of my head. 

"I don't know... You looked so... _frail_..." 

"Never again then, my precious Aibou... I promise." 

* * *

**Authoress's Notes:**

Kendra: aww... How sweet... 

Bakura *jumps on Kendra and tries to beat her up but Yami and Seto pull him off* 

Kendra *stands up and brushes imaginary dirt off her front* 

Yami: What the hell was that for? 

Bakura: I _said_ that if she mad me nice.... *tries to wave his fist around but the other two Muses are still hanging onto his arms* 

Kendra: Oh come on Bakura, you're still your regualr assholish self the rest of the time. And to everyone else. Pretty much when it's not you and Ryou one-on-one... Yup, no-one else sees your lovey-dovey side... 

Bakura: I don't _have_ a 'lovey-dovey' side! 

Kendra *points to the last line of the story* 

Bakura *pulls out of the other two muses hold and stalks away* 

Kendra: And through all that he didn't say his _word_... 

Yami: Anyway, please R&R 

Seto: And if you find out our _words_ I'm dying to know what they are. 

Kendra *glomps Seto* 

Yami: That, can be arranged, my dear Seto... 


	4. Return of the Wolfos

**::Lonely Nights::**   
**:The Wolfos Return:**

****Ryou****

I was snuggling closer to my yami when my damn alarm went off. I muttered things under my breath that sounded something along the lines of 'damn fucking alarm.' 

Yami groaned and rolled over, "I agree completely." I sat up slowly, hating having to move from the warmth of the bed. "Why'd you even turn the damn thing on?" 

"Because I have to go to school today…." I groaned. 

I felt him behind me and leaned into him. He grunted and fell over backwards. "Ow," he mumbled as he hit his head on the wall. 

"Mph, sorry," I mumbled back. 

"Why do you have to go to school?" he asked, sounding like a little kid asking their parent why they have to go to work. 

"If I can have a food fight I can survive school." 

Yami sighed, "If you say so…" he wrapped his arms around me and put his head on my shoulder as best he could, leaning against that wall, plainly showing that he didn't agree. 

"Leggo," I told him as I struggled to stand up, much as I didn't want to. Yami let go and flopped back down onto the bed. 

"If you're so dead set on going to school then I'll just go back to sleep…" 

"You know, you could got hang out with Yugi's yami while I'm at school…" Yami just grunted and I sigh. "Why can't you get along with them?" 

"Who?" Yami asked, rolling over, "The peanut gallery?" 

"Yugi and the gang." 

"Because they're idiots." I glared at my Yami. "Honestly! All Anzu does is preach friendship, Joey—I'm going to have to agree with Kaiba's description of him and Tristen… I don't know—he's just Tristenish." 

"What about Yugi and Yami?" 

"Yami is the Pharaoh, 'nuf said, and Yugi, he's altogether to perky. It's like he's on drugs!" I know I made some odd sound between a cough, snort and choke because Yami looked at me funny. Yami laughed softly, deep in the back of his throat as his eyes moved slowly around the room, "Hm." 

"What?" 

"It was Daylight Savings Times on the weekend." 

"What? Ah shit!" I sped up my morning preparations. 

"What?" 

"I'm gunna be late!" I exclaimed as the telephone started ringing, "shit!" 

"Ill get it," Yami said lazily, walking out of the room to the telephone in what he had slept in… His boxers… 

****Bakura****

"Hello?" I asked the telephone, trying not to sound happy. 

"Hello…" 

I waited, "well?" I finally asked. 

"Um… It's Yugi…" 

I sighed, "what do you want?" 

"Is Ryou going to school today?" he finally burst out. Just then Ryou ran down the hall and tromped down the stairs and I watched him before I answered Yugi. 

"Eventually," I said and hung up the phone. I leaned over the railing and called down to Ryou. "Aibou, your shirt is on backwards." 

"Oh, thanks," he said, trying to turn his shirt around while eating a piece of toast. He ended up falling on his butt. 

I strolled slowly down the stairs to watch Ryou, finally I commented, "I changed the clocks." 

That brought my aibou to a crashing halt, "What?" 

"I changed the clocks for Daylight Savings." 

"You changed the clocks," Ryou repeated slowly. Just because I liked Ryou didn't mean I couldn't play pranks on him. "You—you ass!" he exclaimed jumping on me and beginning to tickle me. 

"No!" I hollered trailing off into laughter. I may not seem like the ticklish type but that is just about my biggest weakness. 

"Teach you to do that to me again!" he yelled at me as he continued to tickle me. 

"I give! I give! I give!" I yelled and Ryou eased off. Suddenly I felt my hikari's weight on my stomach acutely. The boy had me on my back and was straddling my stomach, he had been tickling my armpits. 

Suddenly Ryou grabbed me around the back of the neck and was about to crush our mouths together when the door opened. Ryou quickly let of my neck and his hand slid to my shoulder and he looked over his shoulder at the door. I looked around Ryou's side and saw Yugi and the peanut gallery. "Haven't you ever heard of knocking?" I demanded of the open-mouthed quartet. 

"What?" Joey asked, a wicked grin coming to his lips, "don't want us to see Ryou beating you up?" 

"Ready to go?" Yugi asked and Ryou scrambled off of me and dashed to the door, grabbing his bag on the way out. I dropped down to lay spread-eagled on the floor. Joey is good for something! How amazing…. 

* ^ * ^ * ^ * 

Well, eventually I got off the floor and started cleaning up the kitchen from yesterday. Who knew you could have so much fun with food… I seriously doubt I can ever look at whipped cream the same way again though… Cleaning, bleh… If the Pharaoh saw me he'd probably say something along the lines of, "Tomb-robber's going _so-oft_. Cleaning house, hmph." 

"Pharaoh?" I demanded, whirling around with the pot I had been washing in hand like a soapy weapon. 

"You're losing your touch," Yami commented and I growled at him. "Time was when you would have been on me with a knife as soon as I got in the house." 

I'm seriously contemplating giving him death by soapy pot… "What do you want?" I demand. 

"Just to hang," Yami says innocently. I glare at him and he smiles. 

"What do you _really_ want?" I ask him, hesitant to turn back to the sink now that Yugi isn't here to stop Yami from beating the shit out of me. 

"To find out what's up between you and Ryou," Yami admitted. 

"Nothing's up," I say, finally turning back to the sink before cursing myself for answering so fast. 

Yami looks at my back, "Are you sure? Aibou said you two were acting strange this morning, he said something about Ryou beating you up." Pharaoh pauses, "and why the hell are you only wearing boxers?" 

I glance down at myself, "because I'm a lazy asshole, you know that," I tell the Pharaoh, ignoring his prying questions about Ryou and me. 

Yami replies lazily, "I know you're an asshole, but that doesn't explain your behaviour, one would think you're almost _happy_…" 

I turn around again, frying pan in hand, "one more word out of your fucking mouth and I'm going to kill you. You're making me sick." 

"How sweet, I'm touched." 

I step forward and smack him in the side of the head with the frying pan, _^classic…^_ and he falls like a rock. I look down on him, _hope I didn't kill him…_

{Hope you didn't kill whom?} 

[Uh… No one?] 

{Did you do something to Yami?} 

[How did yo- I mean… No.] 

{Yugi's freaking out, says that you attacked Yami.} 

I look down at the unconscious Pharaoh, [tell Yugi he provoked me. And that his yami's 'touched' in the head.] 

{What?} 

[Nothing…] 

I can feel my aibou shake his head, {Yugi wants to come 'save' Yami…} 

[Isn't anything he can do to stop me.] 

{Stop you from what?} 

[Nothing… Just saying that if I wanted to do anything to Yami it would have been over and done by the time he got here…] 

{Well that's not very reassuring to Yugi…} 

[Meh, to bad for him.] 

{…} 

I look down at the Pharaoh again, [tell Yugi I won't kill his Yami…] 

{You sound so thrilled.} 

[I'm ecstatic. I finally get Pharaoh down then I'm not allowed to hurt him! Arg!] 

****Ryou****

[I'm ecstatic,] Bakura says sarcastically. [I finally get Pharaoh down then I'm not allowed to hurt him! Arg!] 

I try not to laugh and Yugi glares at me. "This is no laughing matter! Yami's in terrible peril!" 

"No he's not!" I protested, "Bakura is not going to hurt Yami." 

Yugi glares at me, "How do _you_ know that?" 

"Because-uh… he said so?" 

"Arg!" Yugi exclaims, flinging his hands up. I tilt my head sideways at him, "What?" 

"You just sounded like my yami is all." 

"Ach!" he exclaims falling over backwards. 

{This is kinda fun…} 

[Welcome to the ways of the tormentor. And well done, young grasshopper.] _^Lol, major inside joke there… Sorta…^_

"What's wit' Yug'?" Joey asks coming over and looking down at Yugi. 

"Nothing," I say innocently and Yugi glares at me. 

"Bakura's attacking Yami! And he says that Bakura's not going to do anything…" 

"Well… He was beating Bakura up this morning…" Tristen interjects, making me blush slightly. I wasn't exactly /beating/ Bakura up… I don't think anyone would count tickling someone as beating him or her up… 

"Yeah, maybe Ryou here's got Bakura under control now!" Joey says. 

"Can't you just trust me that Bakura's _not_ going to beat Yami up? And stop talking like I'm not here!" 

"He's unconscious," Yugi says calmly. 

[You'd be unconscious too if you got hit in the head with a frying pan…] 

I snort and try not to laugh, {You hit him in the head with a frying pan?} 

[Yes. He provoked me! Like I said…] 

{He's gonna be pissed when he wakes up…} 

[Meh, I put him in the dumpster out back…] 

{You _what_?} 

[I put him in the dumpster out back,] Bakura repeats slowly. I rub my face. 

"What is it?" Yugi asks. 

I shake my head ruefully, "Nothing." Yugi glares at me. 

"Hey, we've got an hour before class starts again, why don't we go check on Yami?" 

I feel Bakura roll his eyes, [Your friends are moronic.] 

"Great idea!" Yugi exclaims. 

[If something takes down a Pharaoh with magic what makes them think they can do anything to help him?] 

{Um, the 'power of friendship'?} 

Bakura snorts, "are you coming Ryou?" Tristen asks and I trot to catch up with them. 

{Well, we're all coming…} 

[You're bringing the peanut gallery?] Bakura exclaims. 

{Yes.} 

[Then I guess I'll go put some pants on before they get here…] 

{What! It's lunchtime!} 

[Really?] 

{You're psychotic, you know?} 

[Damn straight.] I sigh and shake my head. 

"What?" Yugi demands. 

"Can't I sigh?" I ask sharply, before I can catch myself. 

Yugi looks at me sideways, "Something wrong Ryou?" 

"No! Everything is absolutely pea-ah!" 

"Ryou? Holy shit!" 

****Bakura****

Listening to Ryou's conversation with his friends while I get dressed I'm suddenly assaulted with a loud exclamation of, {HELP!} 

[Ryou! What?] 

{Helphelphelphelphelphelphelphelphelp Oh bloody hell…}_^Say it with a British accent and it's just that much funnier...^_

I dash out of the house, [Aibou! What?] Seeing the peanut gallery from down the street I mutter, "shit," to myself and try to run casually over to them. Like you can run casually. Fortunately they don't seem to notice. In fact, they don't seem to notice me at all, that is, until I shouted in their faces, "Where the hell is Ryou!" 

Very comical, that was, they all literally jumped three inches in the air whirling around to face me like I was going to kill them while they aren't looking. Anzu points down the street and Joey demands, "Where's Yami?" 

"In a dumpster somewhere," I tell him before starting off down the street. I look around me for weapons, good old habits, I grabbed that dagger I used before as I ran out of the room… Handy. Finding the alley that Anzu pointed to I can see two of those wolfos, as I've come to refer to them as. One of them has its jaws closed around the ring, Ryou's got both hands on the other side and is pulling with all his strength against the wolfos, but it's dragging him backwards into the alley. The other's got Yugi's arm in its mouth and is pulling on it, blood dribbling out of the corners of its mouth. Grabbing a rock I grab it and fling it at the wolfos with the ring in its mouth. Its head snaps up, dragging Ryou along with him so that his feet are off the ground. These things are huge, I realise. 

{Yugi!} Ryou exclaims in my mind, his voice sounding strained. Wondering why the hell I'm listening to what my aibou is saying I lunge at the beast with Yugi in its mouth, stabbing the dagger into its flank. The thing roared, dropping Yugi, the kid scrambled backwards as fast as he could go and I drove the dagger into the thing's back trying to distract it from the midget. Whirling around, the thing faces me, mouth open slightly, blood and saliva dripping from its mouth and growling slightly. I grab the dagger tightly in my fist and wait for the wolfos to make the first move. {Watch out!} Ryou exclaims moments before I'm slammed to the ground by the other wolfos. Reversing the knife I stab backwards, hoping to hit the wolfos. I hear a snarl from above me as my knife cuts the flesh of the fiend on my back. Suddenly the weight was lifted off my back and I scrambled to my feet. The first wolfos I had attacked appeared to be defending me… At least we knew that the wolfos weren't entirely packly… Looking at the two boys I saw that Yugi was passed out and Ryou was hanging on to the smaller boy's shoulder, watching me with wide eyes. 

[Come on! While they're distracted!] Ryou picked Yugi up carefully, the ring still clenched in this left fist. I turned around to see that the wolfos had apparently resolved their conflict and the first wolfos appeared to be the victor, and he was looking angrily at me, blood dripping down its flank. Growling it leapt at me, I slashed at it but it got my elbow in its jaws. It bit down hard and I _heard_ the bone in my elbow crunching. I bit my lip, determined not to scream, grabbed the knife with the other hand and plunged it into the thing's brain. Shuddering, it disappeared, much like the first one had. 

"Yugi!" I heard the Pharaoh call; I will admit, I was happy to hear him. But never again! That was a once-in-a-lifetime thing… The other wolfos looked over his shoulder at the Pharaoh and peanut gallery standing in the entrance to the alleyway, looking back and forth between us the wolfos obviously decided we were to much to handle and jumped over the fence, disappearing in mid air… Not like the ones I had killed, but sort of the same. I stood up painfully just before the Pharaoh shoved by me to get to his hikari, rudely shoving me into a wall. 

I clenched my jaw, Ra my elbow hurt. "Yami?" Ryou whispered from slightly behind me. "You okay?" 

"I just got my Ra-damned elbow crunched by a fucking wolfos, I'm just peachy!" I said through clenched teeth. 

"You goddamned tomb-robber! You hit me in the head with a frying pan and then put me in a dumpster when my hikari needed me!" I turn to look at Yami; he's standing with Yugi cradled in his arms. I don't have the energy to rely with some witty remark so I'm content to glare at the Pharaoh. 

****Ryou****

I can feel that Bakura's too tired to respond to Yami' rant so I do it for him, "He just saved Yugi's life!" I yell at the spirit. 

"Sh… Ryou…" Bakura whispers to me, but I ignore him, and stare at Yami. Bakura risked his life to save Yugi, no matter how un-him-like it is! Yami seems to be pretty surprised that I'd defend my yami. I'm about to yell something that's probably completely out of line but Bakura grabs my shoulder, "Shut up hikari…" [I didn't expect him to jump up and down and say thank-you. It doesn't matter, can we please go home?] 

{But your elbow…} I look at his elbow and wince, it looks absolutely horrible, {shouldn't we go to the hospital?} 

[Fine, fine, whatever, as long as there's pain killers there…] 

****Bakura****

Hospitals are nice… They have lots of painkillers… Maybe I should raid a hospital… Meh… Not right now… Ryou's been here ever since I got here… Hey… Guess what? They put some metal in my elbow… I think… Well… Ryou was pretty revolted with my elbow, however it looked… I didn't look at it… Drugs are fun… I think they put Yugi an' me in the same room as me… Stupid people… Wonder how long you have to stay in the hospital if you've got a broken arm… Hopefully not very long… I think Ryou said they're letting me out tomorrow… It looks like an asylum in here. Asylums are fun! That's where they put the crazy people… Does that mean I'm crazy? 

"Mr. Bakura? Have those drugs worn off yet?" Hm? I look over at the lady talking to me. Oh yes, it's that nurse-lady that's been drugging me up… I nod and she raises an eyebrow. She seems to expect me to speak. Well, she can't make me! I press my lips together and grit my teeth obviously enough for her to see. She rolled her eyes and looked at Ryou. "Sirs, visiting hours are over." 

I look around, I know Ryou's here but who else was? Hm… Oh, look, Pharaoh… Where's the peanut gallery? {They went home.} 

[Woh! When did you start listening?] 

{You've been babbling like that since they drugged you.} 

[Um… What have I been saying?] 

Ryou blushes, {Uh…} 

[Never mind then. I can guess.] 

{I'll see you tomorrow when you get out then…} Ryou said, looking at Yami and Yugi. 

[Bye, Aibou.] Ryou walked out after Yami on the insistence of the nurse. 

"You're friends," Yugi commented. 

"I don't think so," I told him. 

"I think so." 

"Fuck off." 

"Come now Mr. Bakura, don't be like that," I glare at the nurse. 

{Don't kill anyone while I'm gone.} 

[Aw… But Ryou… She's just _begging_ to be killed…] 

{No.} 

[Party-pooper.] 

"Time for sleep." 

****Ryou****

"And once you've written that blah blah blah blahblah blahblah." This teacher never shuts up… 

"Ryou," hisses Yami, he's at school today for Yugi, I'm pretty sure the smaller boy is 'listening in' on the class. "Is she always like this?" 

"Sh, the teacher is droning." 

"I'll take that as a yes." 

"Boys!" the teacher yelled. "Do you have something to share?" 

"No ma'am," I replied automatically. 

"I was just saying how boring this class is." 

"Yami!" I hissed at the dark spirit. That was not what Yugi would have said. 

[Aw… Let 'im, it's fun. Yugi's hilarious.] 

{What's he doing?} 

[Oh, he's practically spitting… It's hilarious, the nurse thinks he's having some sort of seizure… Much fun…] 

I sigh and roll my eyes as Yami gets into a discussion with the teacher about how she should liven up her lessons. Can't life be normal?… 

****Bakura****

I stand, leaning against the door to the house. They let me out of the hospital about an hour ago; I came home to find the door locked. I tried to break into the back, I fell, it hurt. Damn cast… Dammit all, when does Ryou get out of school? I lean back with a sigh, glaring at my cast. Wonder if Ryou would approve of cutting it off with that chainsaw in the garage… Probably not… 

"Hello, Bakura," Yami said, his tone indicated that he was ready to tease me. 

I open one eye, "I thought you went to school for Yugi." 

"They 'suspended' me for talking back to the teacher. Where's Yugi?" 

"They've still got him at the hospital… Why?" 

"Nothing. Why aren't you inside? Hm…?" 

I ignore the Pharaoh and lean against the door. Adjusting my sling so that my arm is more comfortable I sigh, "When does school get out?" 

Yami shrugged, "I think Aibou said three-twenty." I nod, then proceed to ignore him. "You wouldn't be locked out, would you?" Yami asks with a grin plastered on his face. 

"No, I enjoy standing outside like this," I told him, not opening my eyes. 

"Why don't you just pick the lock?" 

I look at the pharaoh out of the corner of my eyes, "Because that would wreck the lock." 

"Aw, since when did you care about that?" 

"I care because if I wrecked the lock then it wouldn't lock and right now I'm not ready to pay to replace the damn thing. Why don't you go see Yugi?" 

"Because I'd rather spend time with _you_," I look at my watch, two-twenty, I've got to wait for an hour before Ryou gets out of school. I shove off the door and walk away from the pharaoh. "Don't want to spend time with me?" Yami asked, pretending to sound hurt. 

"I'd rather get attacked by wolfos." 

A growl answers my voice, "Be careful what you wish for, tomb-robber," Yami says, looking at the growling wolfos ahead of us. I grab the dagger sitting on my hip and the wolfos seems to laugh! He trots slowly forward and stops about a foot from us, opening his mouth he drops something onto the pavement. Then he turns and runs a few steps disappearing like he ran into a mist. I blink and walk forward to the think on the ground. It's a pendant, a tooth mounted in a silver bracket on a chain. The entire thing looks expensive and I pick it up on the end of my dagger, "be careful, tomb-robber." The necklace looks normal enough and I turn around to show it to Yami. 

"What the hell do you make of this?" 

Yami shook his head, "Whatever it is, I wouldn't trust it." Well that's good enough for me. I bring the dagger closer and pick the necklace up in my fingers, bracing myself for a shock or something. When nothing comes I smirk at Yami and put the necklace around my neck, the chain is long enough that the tooth clacks against the Ring. "You're just doing this because I said not to trust it, aren't you?" 

I jerk my head to one side with a raise of my eyebrows, "Yeah, pretty much." Yami sighs and rolls his eyes. 

{Yami, what's going on?} 

[Nothing, Aibou.] 

{Yami…} 

[I just picked up a necklace that a wolfos left us…] 

{I hope you're not wearing it.} 

[…] 

{You are wearing it, aren't you.} 

[…] 

{Just to spite Yami too, I bet.} 

[…] 

{You can be an idiot sometimes.} 

[Hey! I resent that! I could be an idiot all the time if I wanted to, but then I'd end up like the peanut gallery so I've contented myself with only being an idiot sometimes, you should be happy!] 

{You're crazy.} 

[Damn straight.] 

{I can't understand your logic.} 

[Damn straight, no one can! Not even me sometimes…] 

{Well, I'll be home in half a hour, don't do anything to get yourself thrown into the hospital. Either one.} 

I snort, hospitals may be fun but I'd prefer to stay to restrain my visits to once every several thousand years. "Well, now that you've got the damn thing on, what is it for?" 

"Who knows," I replied with a smile, "but it looks nice, don't you think?" 

Yami rolled his eyes, "I'm going to visit Yugi." 

"Have fun!" I said in an obviously fake preppy voice, then I found myself flat on my back, watching an extremely pissed off Pharaoh stalking away. I touched my face gently, "Oh yeah, brave Pharaoh, hitting a guy with a cast," I muttered to myself getting to my feet. "Beat the bloody shit out of you if I wasn't wearing this damn cast either." 

When I get back to the house I try the door to the garage, finding it open I enter, looking around for that chainsaw… This cast is driving me crazy… My eyes light on the chainsaw and I grin to myself, walking towards it. 

* ^ * ^ * ^ * 

I exit the garage to see Ryou standing there, unlocking the door. He looks over his shoulder and smiles at me, I give him a horribly fake smile and he snorts, opening the door. "What happened to your cast?" Ryou asks, walking into the house. 

"Uh, I lost it?" I suggest. 

"Right," he said, dropping his bag beside the door as he took off his coat. He shed his shoes and padded to the kitchen. I stepped out of my shoes and followed. I lean against the counter as he rummages in the fridge. "You're staring at my ass," he comments from inside the fridge. 

"Do you object?" I ask, blinking slowly. He mumbles something that I can't hear and he stands up, apple in his mouth. 

"Can I see?" 

"What!" 

"The necklace." 

"Oh," I say, shamefaced, and hand him the necklace. He takes it, sticking the apple back in his mouth and raises the tooth to eye level. I turn to grab a pear off the counter when Ryou's cry makes me whirl around. He's dropped the apple and both hands are around the tooth's chain, which is shrinking rapidly around his neck. "Ryou!" I exclaim. 

* * *

**Authoress's Notes:**

Kendra: Ooh… I feel evil. This chapter took me forever to write but it's also the longest of them all. I think it's thirteen pages long… 

Seto: It just never ended… 

Kendra: Shut up you. 

Seto: She was having so much fun making Bakura and Yami fight. By the way, where are they? 

Kendra *looks past Seto to where Bakura and Yami are trying to beat the shit out of each other.* 

Seto *looks behind him*: Ah. 

Bakura: Bloody bastard! Hitting a guy with a cast. What a wimp! 

Yami: You hit me in the head with a frying pan! I demand retribution! 

Kendra and Seto *look at each other* 

Seto *raises an eyebrow* 

Kendra *shrugs and turns to the camera*: Will my muses stop trying to beat the shit out of each other? It's your call. Read and review and tell me, what are my muses' _words_? Unfortunately, none of them said theirs this chapter… But they will next chapter… I will be sure of that… 

Seto *looks nervous* 

Anonymous Announcer: He should be nervous! 

Kendra: When did you get here? 

AA: Uh… I'm not here! No no, not me! 

Kendra *grins evilly* 

AA: Why are you looking at me like that? Aah! 

Kendra *glomps AA* 

Seto: Now he's got a _word_. 

Kendra *laughs evilly* 


	5. Translator

Kendra: I found a name for Yami Malik, I'm going to call him Malikyte which would be pronounced Mali-kite, except one syllable. I don't know where I heard it but I love that name… 

Bakura: And? 

Kendra: I probably should have mentioned this earlier but... 

Seto: She's _borrowed_ the word Wolfos. 

Yami: From the 'Zelda' games. 

Malikyte: Therefore **she doesn't own Wolfos**. 

Kendra: Ack! Another one! Hm... *puts her hand on her chin and thinks* 

Seto: **_Or_ Yu-Gi-Oh!**

Malikyte *whispers* what _is_ she doing? 

Kendra *glomps him* I was thinking up a _word_ for you. 

AA: What a repetoire of _words_ you have. 

Kendra *glomps him* Ah yes, Mr. Anonymous Announcer... you have been given a body! 

AA: really? 

Kendra: Yup! I got Rath to take the soul out of this hot guy's body- 

Yami: But-- 

Kendra *glares* Rath took his soul out. 

Yami *meeps* okay... 

Yugi: Don't intimidate my Yami! 

Kendra: Ack! When will it stop?! 

Bakura: When you get a life. 

Yugi: Or we all get here! ^.~ 

Kendra *glomps Yugi* 

Yami: Whatever comes first. 

Seto: Then it won't stop 'till everyone's here. 

Kendra: I resent that! You guys _are_ my life. 

All: Aww.... 

Kendra: Also, for those faithful fans of mine, I have added a short scene in chapter four about Bakura cutting his cast off with a chainsaw... I realized that I'd forgotten about it so I fixed it. Whoops, almost gave something away in that sentance before I read over this chapter *whew* *overexageratedly wipes sweat off her forehead* 

Bakura: Wahoo! I've now got two free arms! *turns to Kendra* When's Ryou coming? 

Kendra *shrugs* I'm not in charge! 

* * *

  
**::Lonely Nights::**   
**:Translator:**

****Bakura****

"Ryou!" I exclaim, lunging forward when suddenly he takes a deep breath. 

"It stopped," he lets go slowly, the chain is hugging his neck and it's just loose enough to fit two fingers between it and his neck. Ryou put his hand to his throat and held the tooth between his fingers for a moment before looking up at me. "I'm sorry." 

"For what?" I ask, coming closer, he scared the shit out of me with that. That's the problem with going soft… Things like this start affecting you. 

"I should have been more careful, I put it on without knowing anything about it…" 

I smile, "Well, I knew even less when I put it on, at least you thought that you knew it was safe to put the damn thing on…" I touch the tooth and frown. "Why would it do this for you and not for me?" 

"Maybe it has something to do with you being a five-thousand-year-old spirit." 

"Yeah. Maybe that's it," I said, bringing my hand up to the side of his face, "you scared the shit out of me." 

Ryou blushes, then looks at my eye, "What happened to you?" 

I touch my left eye gently, "Oh, yeah… Well, you see… The Pharaoh…" 

"You and Yami were fighting?" 

"Yeah pretty much," I reply. "Never mind that though, what are we going to do about that necklace?" 

"Is there anything we _can_ do?" I shake my head. "We could go ask Yugi…" 

"Why would he have any ideas?" 

"I don't know! It's just what we always seem to do when we have a problem! Go burden Yugi with it." 

I raise my eyebrows, "Why?" 

"I don't know, some innate sense that tells us to burden midgets with tri-coloured hair with our problems. Besides, Yugi's got all of his grandfather's 'wisdom'." 

"If you're asking for advice that he got from his grandpa why don't you just straight to his grandpa?" 

"I don't know!" Ryou exclaimed, throwing his hands up. 

"You're cute when you're flustered." 

"Shut up. You're sexy when you're pissed." I raise my eyebrow and he blushes, "I mean, uh…" 

My grin was feral as I smiled at my hikari, "You think so?" I ask walking towards him. 

Ryou's eyes spark as he realizes what I'm doing, "Nah," he says, turning his back to me, pretending to look in the fridge again. I say pretend because I can see that he's giving me a 'come hither' look over his shoulder at me. I smirk, so he wants to play that way… 

****Ryou****

Peeking over my shoulder I see Yami smirk. _What's he thinking?_ I wonder, and then start in surprise as he walks out of the kitchen. I follow him curiously as he walks into the living room. Then I stop in surprise, as he's nowhere to be seen. "Guess who," he says, wrapping his arms around my chest, pinning my arms to my sides. I shiver as he starts kissing my neck. 

"Yami," I hiss, trying to turn to him as he nips gently on the side of my neck. 

"Hm…?" he asks, bringing his head beside mine and nuzzling my ear. 

"Let go," I whisper. He let go slowly and stepped back, confusion written on his face. "I said let go, not stop," I whisper in answer to his unspoken question, stepping towards him, putting my arms around his waist and touch my lips softly to his. Yami's arms closed around me, one hand between my shoulder blades, the other at mid-back. He pulled me closer, so our lips were crushed together, his tongue pushed at my lips and I opened obediently, feeling his tongue exploring the inside of my mouth. I moaned into his mouth, tightening my arms fiercely around him, pulling our bodies even closer together. Yami's arms unwrapped themselves from around my shoulders and began to unbutton my shirt as he slowly pushed me towards the couch. Faintly I can hear someone pounding on the door but I'm so involved with Yami that I take no notice of it. He seems just as enraptured as me as he removes my shirt, tossing it aside. I feel my knees hit the back of the couch and I begin pulling at the T-shirt that Bakura had on. We separate just long enough for me to toss his shirt after mine before our mouths are crushed together again, this time with my tongue exploring his mouth. He begins to push me down onto the couch, his hands exploring every inch of my exposed flesh. Suddenly there's a muffled exclamation from the doorway to the living room and I look slowly to the door, feeling myself go beat red. I feel Bakura doing the same thing and we both see Joey, Tristen and Anzu standing in the doorway. Both boys are staring with wide eyes, mouths open slightly in surprise. Anzu has her mouth covered with both hands and appears to be hiding her eyes in Tristen's shoulder. 

"Um…" I say slowly as Bakura stands up, looking around for his shirt. He finds it hanging off the fern in the corner and he walks over to it, quickly donning it again. My shirt on the other hand is at Joey's feet; I'm not about to go get it after what they walked in on. 

"You said dat we could come over ta work on da project together…" 

I tried to think about what project they were talking about, "Uh… What project is that?" 

Tristen seems to be comforting Anzu and it's Joey that's doing all the talking, "Da scene project from English…" 

"Oh, right, I, uh, forgot." Joey rolled his eyes and Anzu peeked out from Tristen's shoulder, shuddered and hid her eyes again. 

"Hey guys! Why are you all standing there with the door open?" Yugi called. Oh Ra damn it, can this get any better? 

"Uh…" Tristen, Joey and Anzu all said at the same time. Yugi appeared in the doorway, right arm in a sling, Yami right behind him. 

The two boys took one look around and Yugi commented, "We missed something important didn't we?" 

"Not really," I said, trying to sound normal, I think my voice came out a little squeaky. 

****Bakura****

"Just dem two makin' ou'," Joey muttered in his heavy accent. 

"WHAT!" Yugi and Yami exclaimed in unison, Ryou and I both cringed at the sound of the yell. 

Suddenly Ryou shivered, "Could you guys please close the door?" he asked quietly. Yugi looked at Ryou, looked at me and sort of, blinked. Yami had disappeared to close the door, I assumed. 

Yugi looked at me again and looked taken aback, "Didn't you have a cast on?" 

I looked down at my elbow, "Um, yes, well… I lost it." 

"I don't believe that bullshit Bakura," Yami told me, coming back into view behind his aibou. 

I looked anywhere but at Ryou, "If you must know, I cut it off." 

"With what?" Tristen asked, jumping into the conversation. 

"A… chainsaw." 

"A _what_!" Yugi exclaimed. Ryou merely looked at me with raised eyebrows and a slight smirk. "Aren't you upset with him?" he demanded of my hikari. 

"What? Why? Because he cut off his cast with a chainsaw? No, I figured he'd done something along those lines. It doesn't really seem to /need/ a cast, now does it?" 

Tristen made a choking sound and Joey shook his head vehemently. I nearly choked on my laughter, this was absolutely _hilarious_! The peanut gallery was taking this so badly it took extreme self-control on my part to keep from laughing. Yugi seemed more surprised that Ryou was making out with me than the fact that he was making out with a guy and Yami looked like he knew about this all along. Which he probably did. For all his faults he's a pretty perceptive person. 

{Why the hell does Anzu keep doing that?} Ryou asked me after Anzu had looked up at him, meeped and put her head back on Tristen's shoulder. 

[Hey, they've always seen you as an innocent little boy and then they walk into a room where you've got your tongue down your evil yami's throat.] 

{You're not evil.} 

[Yes I am. This will forever tarnish my reputation.] 

{What? Regretting jumping me already?] 

[Me? Jump you? You said I was sexy! And you started it! Giving me a come-hither look… Of all the low down…] 

{Hey, you were just as bad.} 

"I don't think they're listening Joey," I tuned back in just in time to hear Yugi say this to Joey, who seemed to be in the middle of saying something. Ryou was looking at the ceiling above his head as he leaned on the arm of the couch and I was leaning against the wall still, staring out the window. 

I turned my attention to the peanut gallery as Ryou said, "Hm?" 

Joey got this ticked off look as he crossed his arms, "Never mind Joey," Yugi said, trying to calm down his friend, "why don't we just go work on the play at _my_ house…" 

"You're not _in_ our group Yug'." Joey said uncomfortably 

"What?" 

"Didn't Yami tell you?" I asked wickedly. "He got you suspended." 

"What!" 

The Pharaoh glared at me over his hikari's head. I grinned at him before he looked down to try to calm his furious aibou down. I looked over at Ryou to see him looking at me, his eyes dancing. [Are you laughing at the expense of the Pharaoh?] 

Ryou looked thoughtful for a moment, {Yeah, pretty much.} 

[Hm?] 

{I was also thinking about what their reactions would be if I jumped on you right now…} 

[Hm?] 

{You look very hot like that.} 

[Like what?] 

{Leaning against the wall like you're king of the world.} 

[I'll try and do it more often.] Ryou glared at me, then smirked and raised an eyebrow, flicking his eyes in the direction of the peanut gallery. Who were trying to get Yugi to stop hitting his Yami over the head with a pillow he'd happened to find on the floor by his feet. I smiled, [I'm rubbing off on you.] 

{So?} he asked as he tiptoed quickly over to me, pointing to the door beside me, leading to the dining room. I nodded and followed him through, we ran as quietly as we could through the house to the stairwell leading upstairs. 

Dashing quickly upstairs the last thing I heard before Ryou shut the door to his bedroom was, "Guys, where'd they go?" 

* ^ * ^ * ^ * 

Luckily for the peanut gallery they'd chosen to leave after we disappeared, but I had the feeling Ryou was going to have a hard time at school today. I sat on the bed, staring at the wall blankly, Ryou was taking a shower right now, and I was dressed and sitting cross-legged on his bed. I was thinking of nothing in particular, just staring at the wall when Ryou walked back into the room, towel wrapped around his waist, hair still dripping slightly. I followed him with my eyes, without moving my head as he rummaged around in his dresser for a clean uniform to wear. I had to resist the urge to attack my hikari. He looked over his shoulder as I made an odd noise in the back of my throat as I clenched some of the bedding in my fists. 

He smiled sweetly, "Problem?" 

"Yes, you're too damn hot." 

"Hm. That's not what you said last night," he said, raising an eyebrow at me. 

"Ra damn it. If you don't put some clothes on you're not going to school this morning." 

Ryou smiled, "If it makes any difference, I'd rather not go to school today." He looked downcast. "I think they hate me…" 

"I'm sorry," I whispered standing, going over to comfort him. 

"It's not you're fault," he said, holding out his hand, palm forwards, to prevent me from touching him before he'd pulled his pants up. Then he collapsed into my hold, arms going around my waist. I made comforting sounds as he cried into my chest, for once not calling him a weakling for crying. "I'm sorry," he murmured, wiping his nose. 

"Nothing to apologise for," I told him, letting him go reluctantly. 

"I was… being weak." 

"Sh… Showing your emotions like that's okay, just in private though, wouldn't want to tarnish our reputation further now would we?" My attempt to make him laugh brought me a small smile. 

Ryou sighed as he looked at the clock, "I should go," he whispered. 

"Do you want me to come with you?" 

"Would you?" I nodded and disappeared into the Ring, but not before grabbing the dagger off the bedside table. 

****Ryou****

"Ryou!" 

I turned around to see Yugi running up, puzzle bouncing on his chest. I smiled tentatively at my best friend, "Hi Yugi…" Would he treat me differently now that he knew… I felt Bakura's comforting presence in the back of my mind, not saying any words but showing me that he was there. 

Yugi seemed to sense my unease and he smiled, "You're still Ryou," he said, tilting his head slightly to the right. Then that seemed to close the subject for him because he began to fill the air with meaningless pleasantries about what he'd done the night before. I smiled, at least I still have Yugi even if the peanut gallery doesn't like me anymore. Wait a minute, when did I start referring to them as the peanut gallery? 

[It suits them, ne?] 

{I suppose…} Suddenly something struck me, "Aren't you suspended?" I asked Yugi. 

"Um, well… Hai." 

"Then why are you coming to school?" 

"Actually, I just wanted to walk with you, I can't actually go on school grounds." 

"You wanted to make me feel better." 

Yugi blushed slightly, "Yeah." 

"Thanks Yugi," I said, hugging him one-armed before running off towards the school, "See ya later!" 

"Bye Ryou!" 

[How sweet…] Bakura said. 

{You sound jealous,} I teased. 

[I'm no such thing!] 

I laughed, {Oh my god, you _are_ jealous!} 

[Hmph.] 

{Don't be like that, you know he's just a friend.} 

[Yeah, he and his yami are in love anyway. You're all mine.] 

{Yup, all yours.} Bakura smiled in his soul room, and I echoed the smile. Until I caught sight of Joey, Tristen and Anzu. 

[Yugi still likes you…] Bakura said, seeing the peanut gallery through my eyes. 

{Yeah… But…} 

[If they don't it's no big loss,] Bakura said, trying to cheer me up. 

{But… They're my friends…} 

[Then let them prove it. If they are they won't care.] I took a deep breath, preparing myself to walk over to the trio. 

****Bakura****

I emerged from my soul room as Ryou ran in the door and was left by myself on the main floor as he ran upstairs to his bedroom. "Aibou…" I called, trotting after him. 

"Please leave me alone right now Yami," he called from inside his bedroom. 

I sighed, "If you want to talk, you only have to call," I told him, walking slowly back down to the door. I clenched my jaw, damn peanut gallery. Just because Ryou liked me like that, didn't mean they had any good reason for shunning him like that! All morning he'd been trying to talk to them and they'd completely ignored him! Joey had looked a couple times, but Ryou hadn't caught him. Throughout the entire afternoon he'd hardly been able to concentrate on his work, he was heart-broken. 

I marched out of the house, no one hurt my aibou like that. I started off towards the Turtle Game Shop, that would be where they all were, converging at Yugi's. I came to the door and took a deep breath, I'd never actually been /inside/ the Game Shop… Pushing the door open I saw only Yami, behind the counter, reading a magazine. 

"Bakura," he commented, "how nice to see you. Looking for someone?" 

"Either, or, any." I said, knowing that he knew who and why I was looking. 

"They're in the kitchen," he grabbed my arm as I went by, "don't beat anyone up." 

"Why the hell not?" 

"They didn't do anything?" 

"Didn't do anything? Didn't _do_ anything!" I hissed my next sentence at Yami. "My hikari is at home crying on his bed because those damn bastards spent the entire day ignoring him! Didn't do anything…" I snarled, turning away from Yami. 

"Ryou's crying?" Yugi asked, standing in the doorway to the back half of the store where he and his grandpa lived. I whirled around, in the background I could see the peanut gallery sitting around the kitchen table, talking. 

"Yes," I snarled dangerously low, my lips curled in a semi-snarl like a cat's. 

"Calm down Bakura," Yami said, putting his hands out, palms forwards like he was trying to calm down an animal instead of a person. 

I took a deep breath and clenched my teeth to keep from killing the other spirit. "Are you sure?" Yugi asked quietly. 

I turned slowly to the small boy, Yami was part way out from behind the counter, standing slightly between his hikari and me. I snorted at Yami, "I'm sure," I told Yugi as he closed the door behind him, shutting the peanut gallery out of the conversation, as they seemed to be trying to listen. 

"Why?" he asked. 

"Because those damn bastards apparently ditched him and he's now sure he's only got one fucking friend." 

"What?" Yugi and Yami exclaimed as one. 

"The peanut gallery didn't talk to Ryou all day. He's convinced that you," I gestured at Yugi, "are his only friend." I emphasised each word. 

{Yami?} 

[Ryou?] I asked, momentarily ignoring Yugi and Yami. 

{I-I'm sorry… C-can you forgive me?} 

[Forgive you? Forgive you for what?] 

{Locking you out.} 

[It's forgiven and forgotten.] 

{C-could you come home?} 

[I'm on my way,] I told him immediately, I looked at Yugi and Yami who were looking expectantly at me. "I'm going home to talk to Ryou," I told the two, turning away. 

"But I thought you said-" Yugi started. 

"Well he's ready to talk now," I snapped at the short teen as I stalked out of the Games Shop. I slipped into an easy jog, eating the distance between the Games Shop and Ryou's house quickly and I was soon mounting the stairs to Ryou's room. 

"Yami?" Ryou's voice came. 

"I'm here," I said, reaching for the doorknob, only to find it yanked from my grasp and myself flung to the floor. Ryou clutching me closely, his head on my chest, tears pouring down his face. "Sh… Sh…" I whispered, smoothing his hair down and rubbing his back. "Sh… It's okay… Sh…" I continued to babble like that until Ryou finally hiccuped and sighed. I continued to rub his back soothingly until he looked up at me. 

"You've changed," he told me. 

"Hm?" I asked idly. 

"If this'd happened last week you wouldn't be doing this." 

"No?" I asked him, "you sure?" 

"Yeah?" 

"You sound so sure. If this had happened last week it would have been the same thing because it _is_ me they caught you smooching with." 

"You make me feel _so_ much better," Ryou muttered sarcastically. 

"I try," I murmured, rubbing his hair. Ryou shifted slightly so that his head was in the hollow of my neck. I felt wetness on my neck and Ryou's body shake again, "Sh… Sh…" I said, making the best soothing sounds I could. 

Ryou clenched fistfuls of my shirt in his hands, "Why?" he whispered. 

"I don't know…" I whispered to my hikari, the first time I'd said those words in over five thousand years. "I think Yami and Yugi are finding out." 

"Hm?" 

"That's where I was." 

"Talking to Yami and Yugi?" 

"Actually, I was going to beat up Joey, Tristen and/or Anzu, but Yami and Yugi kind of got in the way." 

"You were going to beat them up?" 

I flushed slightly, "They hurt you…" 

"Yami," Ryou said, his mouth curving in a small smile. "You'd beat people up for me?" 

"I'd kill for you," I responded, "I love you." I flushed deeply when I realised what I'd just said. 

"I-I love you too," Ryou whispered, mouth moving up to claim mine in a deep kiss. 

"Ain't that just the cutest," I heard from below us. I flipped us quickly over, coming to my feet and looking over the railing to see Malikyte holding a bundle in his arms. 

"What do you want?" 

Malikyte sneered, "I'd love to say it was to beat the shit out of you, but I've got a problem." I raised an eyebrow at him as Ryou got up behind me. "Yeah," he said in an almost whisper. "Malik." Another raised eyebrow, "He-he was attacked by some wolf-thing." 

I exchanged a glance with Ryou, "A wolfos." 

"Bring him up," Ryou told Malikyte. The blonde Egyptian followed the instructions, putting Malik down on Ryou's bed when he was told. Ryou looked over at me and I went into the bathroom to get the things I'd used on Ryou when he'd been attacked by the wolfos. "Holy- what the hell happened?" 

"I told you," Malikyte said, exasperated, "a wolfos got him." 

I entered the room with an armload of bandages to see what had made Ryou exclaim. I looked at Malik and felt my eyebrows raising, that was bad. His entire chest was shredded, claw marks criss-crossing all over his chest and stomach. His left arm looked like it had been gnawed on, his right had three long scratches the entire length of it. His entire face was covered with blood oozing from a large gash over his right eyebrow. His legs seemed to be mostly intact except for several criss-crossing cuts and a swelling ankle. 

"Malikyte, I need some hot water, a cloth and a towel. Ryou, can you get me the tensor from the kitchen?" 

"Right," Ryou said, Malikyte glared at me before I looked significantly down at his hikari, Malikyte sighed and went to the bathroom to get the water. I started cleaning the cut on Malik's forehead with what I had, trying to get most of the matted blood off of his face. 

Malikyte came back in, lugging a pail of water, a rag over one shoulder. I guess Malikyte really cares for his hikari, more than everyone's seen, seeing as how he's lugging a pail of water around after I told him to, for his hikari. "Where were you when the wolfos was attacking him?" 

Malikyte blushed slightly, "I was in a store…" 

"What store?" I asked as I continued to wipe blood off, how could someone bleed so much? I could sense that Malikyte was pissed off and basically I was talking to Malikyte to keep him from breaking things. Malikyte coughed and said something I didn't catch. "What was that?" 

"I said Fabricland you bloody bastard!" 

"Oh." 

Ryou set the tensor bandage beside me with sparkling eyes, {He really doesn't look like the Fabricland type… Does he?} 

[You are evil.] 

{I try,} he replied, echoing my previous answer. 

[What have I done to you?] I ask in mock horror as I begin bandaging Malik's head. It looked like Malik was lucky, only one mark on his head. I continue to bandage Malik with his yami looking over my shoulder. It was bugging the crap out of me and I guess Ryou felt that because he turned to Malikyte. 

"Do you want to help me with dinner, Malikyte." Ryou said, not really asking, but phrasing it like he was. 

"No," Malikyte replied easily. 

"Look, Bakura's not going to work any quicker with you hovering around and there's nothing you can do but wait and having you watching him is probably just going to make Bakura screw up and besides, I need help making dinner." 

[I would _not_ screw up! I work perfectly fine under pressure, he's just getting on my nerves.] 

{Yeah, yeah, _sure_…} Ryou said as he lead Malikyte out of the room. 

"We could eat _you_, ya know," I heard Malikyte say dimly. 

"Um… right…" Ryou said uncertainly, his voice fading away and I couldn't hear Malikyte's response. 

****Ryou****

"Um… right…" I said uncertainly, as I led Malikyte to the kitchen. 

"Well it's _true_, just not practical. Not enough meat on you to feed three people effectively for the trouble it would take to kill you. What _has_ Bakura been feeding you? Vegetables?" I blushed, remembering how most of the food for the past couple days had been either on me or Bakura. Malikyte laughed at my blush, "sooo you and Bakura haven't been /eating/ much food, huh?" I blushed more furiously and Malikyte laughed harder. 

I proceeded Malikyte into the kitchen and froze in my tracks. "What's th—" 

"Sh!" I hissed desperately, backing up as quickly as I could. 

But it was too late, the wolfos in the kitchen turned to look at us. At that moment Malikyte looked over my shoulder and saw the wolfos, "Oh," Was his only comment as I continued backing up, now pushed Malikyte backwards. 

**++You, Translator, give a message to your friend there, if he does not give us his Magic Item, we will kill him. And his lover.++ **I looked at Malikyte, who had his hands behind his back, most likely getting the Rod ready as a blade so he could attack the wolfos. 

"Uh…" I started feeling idiotic; "did you understand him?" I asked. 

"Understand who?" 

"The…uh…wolfos." 

"Um… Ryou, you feeling okay?" 

"Yes, well, the wolfos said that…uh…if you don't give them the Millennium Rod that they're going to kill you and you 'lover'…" 

"You understood it?" I nodded. "You _understood_ the wolfos. _You_ understood the _wolfos_." 

"Yeah." 

"What—how—when—" 

"Maybe it has something to do the wolfos tooth I've got around my neck…" I trailed off. 

"You've got a _wolfos tooth_ around you _neck_!" 

"On a chain," I said calmly. 

**++You have the tooth to translate for us, Translator. We want to be able to communicate with those we are going to rule.++**

"Rule… wha—" 

**++Now, Translator, tell the other one that unless he hands over the Item right now, he shall die, and I will have to tell my friend upstairs to kill the other.++**

"Malikyte… he said if you don't give him the Rod he's going to tell his 'friend upstairs' to kill Malik." I said slowly, looking up at Malikyte, who was looking very pissed off and _very_ dangerous. "Um… I'll just go stand over here, okay?" I said, edging out of Malikyte's way. 

"_No one_ threatens _my_ Malik and gets away with it!" he yelled and lunged at the wolfos, I decided to ignore the fact that Malikyte had just admitted in a very round-a-bout way that he and Malik were 'together'. 

**++Kill him, Master!++** the wolfos howled as Malik hit him and the wolfos's jaws were busy snapping at Malikyte who was struggling to hold his mouth shut while plunging the Rod into his side. I grabbed a butcher's knife off the counter, running for the stairs. 

****Bakura****

A howl echoed through the house that made the hair on the back of my neck stand on noise and I whirled around to face the doorway, Malik was patched up enough to live while I dealt with this. I was almost to the door when I refrained myself from leaving, Malikyte could handle it, and if he was in trouble I was sure that Ryou would call me for help. That howl had sounded too much like 'Kill him,' for my liking. I turned around just in time to see a shadowy figure crash through the window. "Shit..." 

* * *

**Authoress's Notes:**

Kendra: Mkay, well, this chapter was going to be so much more involved and interesting and it wasn't going to end there but... it's now fourteen pages long and it's been a long time since I've updated and my wonderful reviewers-- 

AA: That would be you guys. 

Kendra *glomps him, glares at him, then proceeds* And my wonderful reviewers were getting restless with my evil cliffie. 

Yugi *brightly* Now you can be restless with a new one. 

Yami: How can you be bright when Kendra's going to be killed by flying objects objecting this cliff hanger? 

Yugi: Because now we wont be glomped. ^.~ 

Kendra *glomps Yugi* 

Yugi: See, if she's been knocked unconscious by flying objects then I wouldn't have had to worry about that. ^.^ 

Kendra *glomps Yugi* 

All *sweatdrop* 

Ryou *whispering to Bakura* Has he been like that the entire time? 

Bakura: Hikari! *glomps Ryou* 

Kendra *getting that dark, red-eyed, omnipotent look* I AM THE ONLY GLOMPER HERE!! 

Bakura *quietly* yes ma'am. *huggles Ryou* 

Kendra *going normal* much better. 

Yami *whispering to Malikyte* is that _Bakura_ huggling Ryou? 

Malikyte *rolls eyes* No, it's his evil clone. 

Kendra *glomps Malikyte* 

Malik: But Bakura _is_ evil! 

Kendra *goes off to think up two new words* 

AA: Just to let you all know, the words have started to become phrases or actions because Kendra's running out of comman words to use, so... If you have any good ideas, they will be appreciated and those offering suggestions will be graced with glasses off Egg Nogg. 

Kendra *glomps AA* 


End file.
